Traditionally, a vehicle body is built along an assembly line which may have various subassembly lines, each of which adds a component or module to the body, such as seen in U.S. Pat. No. 5,090,105 (DeRees). Prior assembly methods are prone to tolerance stack-up, which is the addition of successive tolerances as components are added. Tolerance stack-up leads to unacceptable mating of adjacent panels and potentially to compression and tension points in the vehicle body which may add to stress induced cracks or other deficiencies.
Vehicle panels made of composite materials are gaining more widespread use due to desirable characteristics, including broad design flexibility, part consolidation with low tooling cost, dimensional stability, low weight, high strength, corrosion resistance, and excellent thermal and sound properties. Such panels are typically clamped together with an adhesive therebetween. When the bond sets, the clamps are removed, thus introducing stress into the joint.
An assembly apparatus is thus needed which reduces tolerance stack-up while permitting discrete body panels to be presented for adhesive, non-clamping assembly relative to a single base.